My hobbies and my job, as you can see, are pretty sedentary in nature. Most of the things I do all throughout the day involve seating in front of a laptop –working on a certain project and saving all of them in my digital library and if not, I am surely inside a bar or a disco club, earning my living as s a disk jockey.

I gained a lot of weight because of my sedentary lifestyle. I find it hard to give up much of my eating habits because I consider every food as I eat as a form of stress reliever. But I guess it was a good thing some of my friends recommended easy-to-do fitness activities which don’t really take much of my time and energy. And I am quite sure that you are very familiar with these forms of exercise I am going to cite – cycling and jogging.

What is Cycling?

Studies show that cycling is one of the most recreational activities in many parts of the globe. IN the UK for example, as cited by NHS Choices’ website, more than three million people ride a bike every month. Its appeal as a fitness activity extends to many different kinds of people – ranging from young children, old people, people with disabilities and those who are able-bodies. As long as you have chosen the right bicycle for you, you will surely enjoy this form of exercise as much as I do. I do this thirty minutes five days a week and in a month, I can really see the improvement in my body.

What is Jogging?

Running has started millions of years ago. Our ancestors use running to go hunting since the animals they look for as food are also fast in movement. But as the world became more industrialized, people have also discovered different ways on how to run. And in the lookout for a good, effective way of achieving physical fitness, they have found about about jogging – a slower type of running. What I like about jogging is that it is not stressing your body too much. Because of its slow pacing, you lose calories without exerting too much effort. You can also use this to warm up or cool down after or before a period of running or sprinting

Establishing a career can be one of the most difficult challenges one must face when he or she finished high school or college. It can even be a lot harder if one did not take education seriously — but of course, I know that some of you might argue with theory of mine. Nevertheless, I am sure that most of us have experienced jumping from one job to another in the constant lookout for a career that will make us stay for good.

I think that it is safe to compare it with your search for your soul mates or partner. Even if there are people who end up with their first loves, there is also a high percentage of the population who will end up hurt and heartbroken. It may either be because they were not happy with the relationship or perhaps, along the way they found out that they are not really compatible at all. Same principle or scenario can be said in finding a job. The first try is, more often than not, only an avenue for training or platform for exploration. It is about experiencing firsthand the things that would work or not for you. The first try is about finding that perfect fit where you can grow as a person and as a worker.

And as for me, I have had a couple of jobs before I became a part time DJ. I know that being a disk jockey is not more of a stable job but I really like what I do. I think that for now, it gives me the time which I need to think about what I really want in the future. I’ve been to a lot of jobs in the past and I don’t want to engage myself in one without making sure that it is where I can be happy.

Going back to the storytelling of my past jobs, my very first work was as a cashier in a fast food restaurant near the area where I live. It was a job not worth repeating (at least in my opinion). It was a very tiring job. As a cashier, I was in-charge of collecting and disbursing money for every order. I am also the one who take up food orders and send them to the people inside the kitchen. It was a menial job at its best.

To tell you the truth, I was proud to have stayed there for a year and a half given the hard work and stiff responsibilities. Continue reading →

Communicating with one another nowadays is not as difficult and complicated as it used to be in the past. History will tell you, as also discussed in various online texts ,that the revolution of conveying messages to and fro didn’t come by until the early 1900s.

Nevertheless, it is crucial that you, at least ,have an idea of what e-communication is about and how it all started. This is in order for you to be more appreciative of the things it can do for you at present. Electronic communication is defined as a way of transferring information from an entity to another. An entity can take a form of an individual, a firm or a business. For so many year, e-communication has enabled us to communicate easier and faster, – through the help, of course, of technology.

History of E-Communications

As discussed by brighthubpm.com, electronic communication said to have originated with the telegraph. The telegraph is a form of communication in the past which uses two signals while sending off electric impulses across countries via wire. The signals, a dot and a dash, created a code which will be later translated into codes called the Morse Code. This code was used and interpreted into various languages and was considered during that time – a state-of-the-art form of technology.

The next breakthrough occurred when Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876. There were rumors, in fact, which says that he was not the one who invested but rather, a man named Innocenzo Manzetti of England. After a while, wireless transmissions through the use of radio waves become a hit among the people during that time. As technology continues to evolve through time, the devices and gadgets become even more sophisticated. Through laptops, computers and cell phones, we can already interact with each other anywhere and anytime we want to. At present, we have a lot of options to choose from – emails, fax, video conferencing among others.

As a disk jockey, you get to remix a lot of songs and turn them into something fresh and exciting. My job is, basically, to create a playlist of songs and mash them all up into a continuous one in which people can relate and dance to. We achieve this by tweaking the speed of the tracks in the playlist in order for the songs to play in a seamless and even manner. As for more exciting add-on effects, it is up to the skill and ability of the disk jockey.

It was because of the nature of my job which inspired me to extend my passion for music and art of remixing to doing video mash-ups. It just took me a while to master using applications and software to do such like the Youtube Multiplier, Moviemaker, Cyber Directors and such. But if there is something I can say about the learning experience, it was worth it. As you may all see, videos – Youtube mash-ups to be specific- are gaining popularity among all audience spectrums. And so, in my grand aim of seeing people appreciate this form of McHulan remix, then I guess it is a craft worth pursuing.

I admit that I am no connoisseur when it comes to video editing, especially when It comes to dealing with creating youtube mash-ups. But I do believe that learning is a life-long activity. Just because you age or you are not as young as before, then you will already stop from finding something worth knowing. There are many websites you can find online which can help you understand everything you would like to know about video editing. Examples of must-checkout sites are University of Idaho’s BB Learn Help site and eHow.

In everything that we do, and in everything we have in life, we always have this special list of favorites. When we talk about our favorites, these are things which have left a mark in our hearts, and are, in some degree, hold significance in our lives. Some people may have their own favorite set of things – may it be in terms of the movies they watch, the music they listen to or even with the books that they read.

Call me a techie nerd or something, but I am not ashamed with the things I really love. I know that you might already have an idea of what these things are since I’ve obviously talked and blabbed about them in almost every article in my blog. Well, folks, as you may all know, I am talking about the video essays in my digital library. I am not only talking about my finished projects, but also about the collective works of other video essayists whom I look up to. And even if it was quite a challenge for me to choose my top favorite videos, I still have to for the sake of writing this article and also for the goal of making you, my beloved readers, see the best video essays out there (for me).

1. Kevin Lee’s The Spielberg Face

“..Eyes open, staring in wordless wonder in a moment where time stands still.”

Kevin Lee’s video essay’s main argument primarily revolves around the famous director Steven Spielberg’s so-called signature stroke called “The Spielberg Face”. According to him, this significant element in each and every film created by the director has inspired many directors in the contemporary times to follow suit. And just when this kind of technique in cinematic films become much a cliché for the taste of the audience, there was also one director who was able to twist it and turn it into something different – Spielberg, himself.

What I like about the video essay created by Lee is the fluidity of his story telling. The remix of his voice and video clips coming from different movies of Spielberg throughout the years captured the thing which he called the “Spielberg Face”. I think that in an essay, it is very important that your message successfully comes across the people watching them. And I, a Spielberg fan myself, can totally relate to the video being presented. In the end of the ten-minute video, there are a series of insights which may or may not have been revealed to us by the director. K. Lee’s interpretation of the “Spielberg Face” is just so difficult to miss.

2. J. Mayer and J. Canino’s Monsters Are A Child’s Best friend

Jed Mayer and Jeffrey Canino takes an interesting turn on how people perceive monsters in their collaborative effort to make and produce a video essay entitled “Monsters Are A Child’s Bestfriend”.

It tells the story of a man who recalls his past childhood experiences when his parents used to leave them in front of the television. But it was a particular drama on Halloween night, 1971 which carved a mark in his memory forever- James Whale’s Frankenstein. It was then he discovered his want to watch more horror movies similar to that of Frankenstein like Nosferatu, Vampyr and other movies from UFA productions.

This is at the top of the list of my favorite video essays because the message is something which you don’t really see in mainstream films. It compels you to rethink your way of thinking towards monsters. It featured how these so called “Universal monsters” depicts a side which is not typically associated with beasts and other destructive beings: attraction. Frankenstein touches the hearts of children because he is a manifestation of how these young people experience joys, torment and tantrums. In the end, maybe monsters are not totally monstrous in its purest essence because in a way, it has helped children to cope with problems with their inner self. You can also look at www.nytimes.com to see good analytical views regarding this video essay of Kevin Lee.

3. John Bresland’s Ode To Everything

John Bresland, as you may all know, is a well-known video essayist of the 21th generation. The video was narrated by Eula Biss’ voice. Contrary to the opinions of many , I actually liked this video a lot. Sometimes, a video essay does not have to portray or use graphics like pictures in a literal manner. The video essay, Ode to Everything, is one of the few which invokes you to listen to every word Ms. Biss is saying. There is something about the video which encourages you to focus and to feel the soothing tone of her voice and to imagine how a mother talks about her baby. It brings back memories from the old times. I miss my mother.

With the introduction of Internet use to the masses, there are a lot of major changes on how people conduct their activities. Gone are the times when students flock to their school libraries just so they can research on their papers, home works and projects. In just a click, Internet can provide them vast information on the topic they want to learn about. Simply put, there is no longer a need to spend hours scouring over thick encyclopedias in order to find the data or information you are looking for. Everything is provided to you by technology.

The same phenomenon extends to creative expression. Gone are the days when artistic expression is limited to using pen and paper. At present, a new literary outlet has been introduced to the modern essayists who belong to the 21st generation. I may not be one of those who belong to the spectrum of these literary experts but I am quite proud to say that I am a literary artist at heart. And what better way to express myself than to fuse technology and my profound idea together and create my very own video essays.

Northwestern University’s official website described how the merging of technological avenues and platforms and literary forms of art became widely popular. According to the site, video essays are already used and –even taught in many academic institutions across the nation. It is known to be one of the most effective ways of conveying or expressing a particular idea, concept or principle. I think the secret behind the success of this new form of art is its power to appeal to a couple of our most basic senses – sense of hearing and sense of sight.

Various studies and research show that exposing ourselves with these forms of art enable us to remember them faster in comparison to reading words or paragraphs. To put it simply, video essays leave a lasting impression to the viewers in a short span of time. Yet, despite all these features, this hybrid art form doesn’t differ from the essays we are so used to reading. This assertion is supported by an award winning essayist and also a faculty in the Northwestern University, John Bresland, when he posited that when it comes to the goal of sending a message to their target audience, video essays share the same value with their printed counterparts. And that goal is to provide some insight or pose hard-line questions to the people regarding a particular issue or topic. That realization, or that truth, tends to be difficult to see in essays. They are, more often than not, always do more asking than answers.

And as confirmed in Wikipedia, long as these forms of art, may it be in print or visual media, continue to stay true to its essence of perpetual queries, then it will always be considered as an essay.

You may wonder, my beloved readers, why I chose the more complicated path of becoming a video essayist. Because if you think about it, it is a bit easier to use the medium of ink and paper than to create or look for thousands of pictures, videos, graphics and sounds available and make sure that a cohesive and unified idea will come out of them. The simple reason for this is that in addition to it becoming one of my passions in life, I have often been one of those who love working with different forms of technology.

I always put my target audience in mind when doing a video essay. I would like to have this certain power of bringing them to horizons and planes they haven’t been to and plant critical questions and insights on their minds on a wide array of topics – ranging from the trivialities of life down to the most pressing issues of today’s society. I know that in every one of us lies the desire of fulfilling our life’s purpose. And for me, I have already found it. I find joy in creating a remix form of art which mirror myself and my ideas and be able to touch lives because of them.

You might think that my purpose in life may be too ambitious, but I think that we live in an age where nothing can be defined as something impossible. I believe that with the aid of Internet, your laptop and special software to create videos , you can reach and convey your message in many parts of the world without having to leave your seat. YouTube and Vimeo are just some of the examples of the hundred communication platforms which help me realize my dream of showing my ideas and insights as a video essayist.

If you are one of those people who also would like to try video essay writing, you don’t have to be a professional to be one. In fact, most of the existing video essays made at present were produced using simple consumer-level technology and a laptop or desktop computer. Let your imagination and creativity take you to places you haven’t been before in your lives and see how your mind look like on a screen.